Dracula rebooted

The Prince Of Darkness gets an origin story

The most iconic tale of vamp-action might hint at the beginnings of the world’s favourite fang club member, but Bram Stoker’s original novel doesn’t really elaborate how Dracula came to be.

But now Universal is aiming to remedy that after sinking its pointy studio teeth into Dracula Year Zero, a spec script penned by new writers Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless. Their take on the story will blend the actual history of real-life Drac-inspiration Prince Vlad the Impaler with vampire-friendly mythology.

And there’s more: it’s their aim to reinvent the bloodsucker as more of a tragic hero than a monster. And the best part of Dracula’s appeal? The story’s public domain (read: free) to adapt, and with Universal’s rich monster-movie history (Bela Lugosi famously played the toothy one for the studio in the 1931 classic), they should have the know-how to churn out a movie that sucks plenty of blood out of the box office. But hark - that sound you hear is everyone praying that we don’t get another Van Helsing.